


What use is a rumor if reality doesn't hear?

by Glass_O_Lemonade



Series: Sunburns, Paper Cuts, and Other Unpleasantries [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Allison Hargreeves-centric, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bad Things Happen Bingo, Gen, Not Season/Series 02 Compliant, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:48:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25350385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glass_O_Lemonade/pseuds/Glass_O_Lemonade
Summary: Their father calls for Luther and Ben, and Luther and Ben only. Never one to be overlooked nor told what to and what not to do, Allison chooses to join them. After all, a mission is more interesting than spending another day in the academy.Bad Things Happen Bingo Prompt: Trying to Wake Them Up
Series: Sunburns, Paper Cuts, and Other Unpleasantries [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1835833
Comments: 19
Kudos: 37





	What use is a rumor if reality doesn't hear?

**Author's Note:**

> Here’s to Season Two!

Later, she'll remember she was never meant to be there. Their father had assigned One and Six to the mission, no one else. Later, she'll realize had she listened, had she followed orders, ignored the alarm, stayed within her room, ignorant within the academy's walls... later, she'll realize how the mission would have ended. _Originally_... _Six_. _Her brother._..

He didn't. _He didn't._ Because she didn't listen. She didn't follow her father's orders. She didn't ignore the alarm. She didn't stay within her room, didn't remain ignorant within the academy's walls.

Ben didn't die.

_Ben didn't die because she was there._

* * *

"Luther! Luther, we need you!" Static sounds through her earpiece, either a result of damage on her end or on his. "Luther!" her desperate cries are heard by her alone. Tears threaten to fall, as her heart jackhammers steadily faster. Fear. Adrenaline. She doesn't know what she'll find, but she knows it's bad. She's never... she's never heard the Horror scream like that before. _She's never heard Ben scream like that before._

She reaches Ben, and all of her breath escapes her. Immediately, she falls to her knees beside him, fights through the automatic nausea and her overwhelming dread to assess him. There's blood everywhere. At first, she can't identify where it's coming from, but then she sees it- his torso, his chest... there's a giant hole in her brother. The skin around it is charred. A detail she doesn't return to until later. Much later.

She chokes on a sob as she lifts his arm and checks for a pulse. She can't believe it. She leans forwards, jabs two fingers at the base of his neck. A pulse. He still has a pulse. Ben still has a pulse. She can't fathom how, but he does.

She yanks off her jacket to cover his wound. She pushes down, adds as much pressure as she possibly can. She ignores how her arms suddenly feel weak. How her own heart beats erratically. She can't feel Ben's heart. _She can't feel Ben's heart._

"Ben, you need to wake up now," she pleads. Her voice sounds as if it is leaving someone else. The wobbles, the wavers, the broken off words here and there where a sob overtakes one's ability to speak. This can't be happening. _This can't be happening._

She has to wake him up. Whether she should or shouldn't are irrelevant. She's acting, _reacting_ on instinct on emotion and adrenaline. How long did it take her to reach him? How long ago was the explosion?

She starts to rock, attempts to stir him by pushing him side to side.

"Ben, please," she's crying now. Maybe she always was. "You can't do this to us, asshole!"

"I- I heard a rumor you woke up."

Static sounds through her ear.

"I heard a rumor you opened your eyes."

Blood soaks through her jacket.

"I heard a rumor you woke up!"

Ben's skin, what isn't covered by his uniform or stained by his own blood, is eerily pale.

"I heard a- I heard a rumor you stopped bleeding!"

She's yelling now. To Ben. To the world. To herself. To no one.

What use are powers? What use are her rumors if she can't even rumor Ben from dying? If she can't save him- then why the hell does she have this ability? _She's Number Three Hargreeves, The Rumor! She should be able to do something!_

She keeps one arm on the wound, moves her other to place a hand on Ben's face. She shakes him again. It's useless. _She's useless._

* * *

During the debrief, she's silent.

"Sir, they're displaying symptoms of trauma. May I recco-"

Conversations occur around her. Decisions are made for her. Someone hugs her. Eventually. Someone familiar and safe. Once the debrief has ended; once their father has dismissed her. She doesn't return the embrace.

Ben's blood has dried. On her uniform. On her hands. Under her nails. Her brother's blood dried hours ago, and yet, it feels as if she's still in that moment, that terrifying moment.

Mom informs them Ben's unconscious, alive and unconscious. Within a day's time, he should be awake, after rest and fluids and observation.

Grace doesn't share with Allison nor her siblings that Ben should not be alive right now. Statistically, he should have died. By all accounts and evidence, her son consumed a bomb. The fact he is most definitely not dead after doing such baffles her programming, and sparks forth the definition of the term "miracle." He shouldn't be alive. Grace does not disclose her assessment to the children, but she does not need to. Allison knows.

Ben should have stayed dead.

* * *

Despite what her family believes (what she wants them to believe), Allison possesses a limited understanding of her power. For the majority of rumors, what she speaks into existence occurs without any hindrance. During her personal training, their father stressed the importance of pronunciation, of wording and timing. A lie itself wouldn't work without "I heard a rumor," but if she weren't careful a rumor could backfire. Be too vague, and a simple rumor directed at one person may last indefinitely or affect others around them. Be too specific and details may be skipped over or sped up.

For the majority of rumors, what she speaks into existence occurs without any hindrance, and this fact is why she believes their father ceased private sessions with her around the same time he stopped Luther's. Number Three turns lies into reality. As simple as that. There was no mystery to uncover. No secondary ability waiting to be discovered and honed.

 _And yet_. There were still unrumorable rumors; lies she could never bring to life. Whether her father ever took note of these rare instances, she may never know.

To Allison, there appears to be no rhyme, no reason present to which rumors won't land. Over the years, she observed how most rumors directed at herself wouldn't work. Once, she rumored a caterpillar to turn into a butterfly, and that rumor, too, was only empty words. She wouldn't know where to begin to study it, to make sense of the extraordinary, so she doesn't. She doesn't mention it, avoids rumors that may not occur when her family's present. It's her power. Not theirs. Anyways, they would only exploit it if they knew. She never knows when this inexplicable failure in her power will occur, but it's never been an issue before.

Until now.

She's lost count how many rumors she's tried. She's drowning in grief, and there's nothing she can do. Even if Luther reaches them, there's no guarantee they will make it to the car in time, make it back home in time. They don't have time. _Ben_ doesn't have time.

_Fuck!_

She slaps him. Allison slaps him, but Ben remains unconscious. He's dead. _He looks dead._

Her throat is raw, and it's hopeless, it's all hopeless, but she tries again. She's not giving up. _She can't give up._

"I heard a rumor you survive this injury!"

_I heard! I heard! I heard! I heard!_

She checks his pulse.

There's- there's not a pulse.

Ben doesn't have a pulse.

"I heard a rumor-" what? What can she possibly say? Nothing's worked! He's dead! Her brother's dead!

"I heard a rumor I saved you!" she shouts it into the universe, with every core of her being, a broken, shattered plea. "I heard a rumor I saved you! I heard a rumor I had a power that saved you! I heard a rumor these lies fucking meant something!"

Her brother's dead. Under her arms, before her on the ground. She stares, frozen. Then she collapses over him, wraps her arms around him, a final embrace too late and sobs without reprieve.

In a whisper, eyes shut, she hears a rumor. She has nothing left to lose. Nothing left to beg, to curse. After all...

It won't...

_"I heard a rumor I can heal broken things."_

...work.


End file.
